[54.01] Observations of Jets in Galactic and Extragalactic Sources

J.A. Biretta (STScI)

Jets or highly collimated outflows are ubiquitous throughout
astrophysics. Young stellar objects and aged stars within
our own galaxy display jets with typical flow speeds of a
few hundred km s-1, and scale sizes between ~100
AU and ~10 parsecs. Much larger speeds, nearly equal to
c, the speed of light, are seen in galactic X-ray binary
systems which are associated with stellar-mass black hole
candiates. Extragalactic jets similarly have initial speeds
near c, but are associated with super-massive black holes
(106 to 109 M\odot) at the centers of active
galaxies, and propagate outward to distances of kpc or even
Mpc from the host galaxy. We give a brief overview of the
current observational evidence on astrophysical jets, with
emphasis on their formation, composition, structure,
kinematics, and impact on the host object.